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The JIS Debacle and Criminal Record Checks
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SiThep



Joined: 30 May 2013
Posts: 39
Location: Thailand

PostPosted: Mon Jul 28, 2014 4:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

mysterytrain wrote:
princesss wrote:


There is now a 200 page long thread about this case on the Living in Indonesia forum, a popular Indonesian expat forum. It must be a true nightmare to be a teacher at JIS right now living under a cloud of innuendo and suspicion.


Currently 282 pages and ten times as many posts. A fair number of them are mine.

The administrator (NB) and assistant teacher (FT) have now been detained after being called in and questioned for, apparently, about ten to twelve hours.

Seems like the sudden revelation of the "Vahey files" in the middle of all this was a truly unfortunate coincidence for the JIS, as it really helped to fan the flames and furor of the witchhunt. That, combined with the timing in the middle of a Presidential election.

JIS is my alma mater, by the way. I attended JES (Joint Embassy School) for a few years in the mid-70s.

There are rumors that (at least) one of the accusing parents has a history of symptoms of mental problems (probably BPD / NPD), notably, telling outrageous mistruths to get attention.


Are you the Chotto Matte who has been writing on the Jakarta Post comment pages and Living in Indo? My personal feeling is that many of the people on the Jakarta Post website are obvious trolls and it would be better not to feed them. I can't take Jay Z and others seriously.
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bradleycooper



Joined: 12 Apr 2013
Posts: 310

PostPosted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 4:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/01/jis-teachers-detentions-extended.html

Despite not having laid charges against the 2 teachers, police have now extended the detention of the suspects by a further 40 days. 80 days in detention without charges being pressed: how many international conventions of human rights does that break, I wonder?

Mind you, they did pass the polygraph tests which the police insisted they do, but apparently the police are only interested in polygraphs if they help the case against JIS. The $125 million lawsuit against JIS is motivating everything they do.
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mysterytrain



Joined: 23 Mar 2014
Posts: 366

PostPosted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 11:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

SiThep wrote:


Are you the Chotto Matte who has been writing on the Jakarta Post comment pages and Living in Indo? My personal feeling is that many of the people on the Jakarta Post website are obvious trolls and it would be better not to feed them. I can't take Jay Z and others seriously.


"Chotto Matte" is a Japanese National who lives in Jakarta. I do not know him / her personally, and I don't post on that thread nearly as often as s/he does (though I have made many posts there over the course of the thread). S/he seems to have a very sincere interest in the ongoing case. Why s/he spends quite so much time on it, I don't know and not my concern.
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Listerine



Joined: 15 Jun 2014
Posts: 340

PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 7:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

bradleycooper wrote:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/01/jis-teachers-detentions-extended.html

Despite not having laid charges against the 2 teachers, police have now extended the detention of the suspects by a further 40 days. 80 days in detention without charges being pressed: how many international conventions of human rights does that break, I wonder?


Insanity. Pretty soon they'll have spent more time in jail than the Cikeusik murderers and the only evidence against them is the flaky ramblings of some insecure gold digging trollop and her quite obviously coached kid.

Amazing the motivation the endlessly sleeping / newspaper-reading / coffee sipping / chain-smoking / mustache twirling / nose-picking cops there can show when there's a commission on a 125 million buck lawsuit at hand.....that...new....Audi....so.....close.....but....still.....so.....far....just confess already, dammit. Stoopid Bule!

The missus' uncle ended up in the slammer in Bitung, North Sulawesi after the cops found a bag of ganja in an adjacent room in his Rumah Kos. Cops rounded up everyone and held them without trial based simply upon the wrongdoings of one man staying in the same place. In the end all, bar the actual owner of the drugs were released without charge....6 months later!
At least in uncle's case he lost his job as a result plus most of his valuable gear in the Rumah Kos had been pilfered (presumably by Pak Polisi)

I pity these couple of teachers as a simple google search is more or less all it will take to ensure they never work in the industry again. Regardless of the outcome the simple accusation of pedophilia is enough to make you both social and educational kryptonite.
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bradleycooper



Joined: 12 Apr 2013
Posts: 310

PostPosted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 4:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.smh.com.au/world/australian-embassy-concerned-by-detention-of-jakarta-teachers-20140716-zto36.html

Apparently the British, American and Australian embassies have made the unusual step of issuing a joint expression of "concern" about this case. One wonders how much difference it will make. Dollars are clearly flashing in the eyes of police, prosecutors and the gold-digging mothers.

The first mother has issued a statement expressing her delight at it all:

"I'm so proud to be Indonesian because the US government is so big. Did they really arrest these bules (white foreigners)? … I'm so proud of my country".

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/staff-at-prestigious-jakarta-school-shocked-by-allegations-of-paedophilia-made-by-parents-20140722-3cdfm.html#ixzz3AL0eiO1K

On to the Jakarta papers. In the latest bizarre development, the police are looking to consult an Indonesian sexologist to gather further evidence. I guess the polygraphs din't give the answers the police wanted, so why not dig out some flaky "expert" to try and bolster a weak to non-existent case.

And what about the "suspects"? The Canadian teacher spoke to the Calgary Herald yesterday and said pretty much what every other rational observer is saying. Here is an excerpt:

Bantleman, who is accused of sexually assaulting students at the school, said that he believes the children making the allegations were encouraged to implicate him as part of broader plans to extract a $125-million US claim from the school.

I think there are bigger things at play; quite possibly money, the hope of a big payoff — (the hope) that you can implicate teachers and then the school has that responsibility to pay,” he said.
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Listerine



Joined: 15 Jun 2014
Posts: 340

PostPosted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 6:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

bradleycooper wrote:
In the latest bizarre development, the police are looking to consult an Indonesian sexologist to gather further evidence. I guess the polygraphs din't give the answers the police wanted, so why not dig out some flaky "expert" to try and bolster a weak to non-existent case.


Uh oh sounds like they're going to drag creepy old self-confessed expert about everything, Roy Suryo from his cryogenic chamber if they can pry those naked Luna Maya pics from his cold, komodo dragon-skinned fingers long enough to analyze the "evidence".
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EFL Educator



Joined: 17 Jul 2013
Posts: 988
Location: Cape Town

PostPosted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 12:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What they need is an EFL Sexologist to examine the evidence...LOL Laughing Laughing
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bradleycooper



Joined: 12 Apr 2013
Posts: 310

PostPosted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 1:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/26/5-jis-janitors-sex-abuse-trials-begin.html

The case against the 5 cleaners has now begun. The cleaners have all retracted their "confessions", saying that the confessions were only made because the police had tortured them. Considering that there were originally 6 Indonesian suspects and one of them died in police custody due to "drinking cleaning fluid", the allegations of police torture seem very plausible.

"He was tortured, according to the people who are now in jail," said Mr. Simanjuntak, who assigned a staff member to the jail to aid the suspects by bringing them food and relaying messages. "The other four men confessed because, according to them, they don't want to die like their friend."
Wall Street Journal


Having followed Indonesian current affairs for many years, I can report for a fact that the torture of suspects is very common by the police. Amnesty International publicized a case in 2006 where a woman was electrocuted by the police 6 times until she revealed where her husband, who was a fugitive, was hiding. These are not isolated cases but common practise in the country since the days of the Suharto dictatorship.

For better or worse, the first case is now in progress. I very much doubt justice will be done and the evidence will be impartially examined. There are many more cases to come against JIS teachers and cleaners. Probably the lawsuits will go on for months. I imagine that this case will cast a pall over the teaching community for some time yet.
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bradleycooper



Joined: 12 Apr 2013
Posts: 310

PostPosted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 1:20 am    Post subject: "Magic Stones" Used at JIS Reply with quote

Police documents describe claims of rapes in 'secret rooms' and the use of 'magic stones' at elite Jakarta School.

• March 5: The family of a kindergartener reported that he had been raped by a janitor on the campus of the Jakarta International School.

• April: Police arrested 6 janitors on suspicion of sexually abusing children. The janitors all initially denied the allegations, but four confessed during interrogation to multiple gang rapes in campus restrooms. One janitor died during interrogation; police say he committed suicide. The only woman in the group, and the only one to have legal representation during questioning, denied committing any crime.

• April 24: The family filed a $12.5 million lawsuit against the school. The amount of damages sought was increased to $125 million on May 28.

• May and June: Two more families said their children had been abused. Police investigated allegations from the three families that staff members, including a Canadian school administrator and an Indonesian teacher's aide, participated in sexually abusing children.

• Mid June: According to police documents, the family that filed the lawsuit alleged that staff members had drugged children and videotaped them being sexually abused. According to the documents, the boy claimed that one suspect conjured a 'magic stone' from the air and used it to partially anesthetize his alleged victim. Police have not produced any videotape evidence of the alleged abuse.

• According to the police documents, the family also alleged that boys were abused in a half-dozen locations around campus, including two 'secret rooms' that have been hidden and in high-traffic areas such as an open kitchen and a glass-walled office.

• July 14: Canadian school administrator Neil Bantleman and Indonesian teacher's aide Ferdinand Tjiong, were arrested on allegations of abusing children. They deny committing any crime.

• August: The five janitors went on trial. On their first day in court, the four who had confessed recanted their statements, alleging they had been made under torture. The trial is continuing.

• Sept. 11: The detention of Messrs. Bantleman and Tjiong was extended another 30 days.

Wall Street Journal
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Tazz



Joined: 26 Sep 2013
Posts: 512
Location: Jakarta

PostPosted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 9:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Secret hidden rooms within the school for abuse.....magic stones conjured from the air.....this whole sorry saga has clearly descended into the realm of insanity!
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bradleycooper



Joined: 12 Apr 2013
Posts: 310

PostPosted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 5:35 am    Post subject: False Memory Syndrome Reply with quote

Tazz wrote:
Secret hidden rooms within the school for abuse.....magic stones conjured from the air.....this whole sorry saga has clearly descended into the realm of insanity!


What we have here is a classic case of false memory syndrome. Unless you believe that there are really hidden dungeons under JIS (purpose built for nefarious purposes), not to mention these mysterious magic stones which can appear from thin air and hypnotize you, then we are either dealing with a deliberate liar (unlikely), or a child who has developed false memories. Considering how this child has undergone months of "recovered memory therapy"( a technique which has been widely condemned by Western psychologists), it seems very likely that these fantastic memories have been planted. The Wikipedia entry on the syndrome is very instructive here:

False memory syndrome (FMS) describes a condition in which a person's identity and relationships are affected by memories that are factually incorrect but that they strongly believe. Peter J. Freyd originated the term, which the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF) subsequently popularized. The term is not recognized as a mental disorder; however, the principle that memories can be altered by outside influences is overwhelmingly accepted by scientists. False memories may be the result of recovered memory therapy, a term also defined by the FMSF in the early 1990s, which describes a range of therapy methods that are prone to creating confabulations.

Creating confabulations. That's a good way of describing these hidden chambers and these magic stones. Yet on top of these false memories, there is a greedy police force who want their cut of the $125 million compensation being demanded. That has clearly persuaded them to throw their lot in with the witch hunt. Anyone who criticizes the case is now accused of being part of the conspiracy. For example, the school has denied that these hidden chambers ever existed, but they are just labelled as part of the conspiracy. The builders who did the latest renovations at JIS have denied that these chambers ever existed. Therefore, according to the warped logic of the conspiracy theorists, they must be part of the cover-up too.

In short, this whole case has put the Indonesian police and judiciary in a very bad light. Yet there's nothing new there. In a recent survey, 91% of Indonesian respondents said they didn't trust the police. The justice system in Indonesia has long been a nexus of criminal activity and oppression, and this case has once again exposed it for what it really is.
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memae



Joined: 24 Apr 2012
Posts: 38

PostPosted: Wed Oct 01, 2014 8:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

i haven't read every single post in this thread, admittedly, so forgive me if this has already been mentioned, but i heard the JIS land is being sold by Pertamina and will be used to become a mall. Does that sound right? Like, i used to live by Terogong and everyone knows the land wasn't owned by JIS. It's just very convenient timing, really.

And like Terogong could handle a mall, anyway. It's a terrible idea.
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princesss



Joined: 28 Mar 2007
Posts: 152
Location: japan/indo/aust

PostPosted: Thu Oct 09, 2014 11:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

memae wrote:
i haven't read every single post in this thread, admittedly, so forgive me if this has already been mentioned, but i heard the JIS land is being sold by Pertamina and will be used to become a mall. Does that sound right? Like, i used to live by Terogong and everyone knows the land wasn't owned by JIS. It's just very convenient timing, really.

And like Terogong could handle a mall, anyway. It's a terrible idea.


I have heard about the Pertamina angle. If JIS are financially ruined by the $125 million lwwsuit, they will not be able to oppose Pertamina's plans to sell the extremely valuable land out from under them. Pertamina has been notoriously corrupt for decades, a state-owned enterprise that is a huge cash cow for a corrupt elite. I recall teaching a class of Pertamina executives once who were heading off to a 5 star golf course resort in China for a week at the taxpayer's expense. They were all driving around in fancy cars. If Pertamina were involved in a huge scam, it wouldn't be anything new. Smuggling subsidized fuel out of the country is a very lucrative sideline for these guys. This case has so many murky subplots that it seems like the plot of a far fetched thriller.
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memae



Joined: 24 Apr 2012
Posts: 38

PostPosted: Thu Oct 09, 2014 2:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It'll be an absolute shame. It's probably the nicest school campus in Jakarta. And where could they relocate to? How horrible from going from a school with grounds like that to a concrete slab with 4 floors and no outdoor sports field, somewhere near one of the satellite towns.

Didn't know that about Pertamina, but it feels like i did. Maybe i did know, and forgot. Or maybe it just doesn't surprise me at all. There's never anyone at the Terogong one anyway. When i lived there, i thought the fuel station had been closed because the 7/11 had proved more popular.
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bradleycooper



Joined: 12 Apr 2013
Posts: 310

PostPosted: Thu Oct 09, 2014 5:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pertamina does own the land, but apparently it is not getting as much for leasing it as the big-wigs there would like. I found the following interesting information on another forum:

It was reported that JIS rents the land it uses from Pertamina. It seems they paid the whole sum of $10,- for the 15 years between 1985 and 2000. (Yes, that is not a typo, it's $10 for 15 years, or about 67 cents per year). It then extended this lease another 30 years, for the same pittance. However, in 2003 the contract was renegotiated, and JIS paid Rp 1M per year (approx USD 87,000) since then. Still an incredible bargain for 128,000 sqm in Pondok Indah.

Apart from any potential involvement from the notoriously greedy and corrupt Pertamina, the 2 teachers from JIS have been in detention without trial for several months now. Last time I heard, the police hadn't even interviewed them for over 6 weeks. And that's not even mentioning the deportation of 26 other teachers who weren't even involved in the case. Overall though, they were surely the lucky ones. I cannot understand why any teacher would even consider working at JIS these days; perhaps some people are much braver than I am.
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